THE ESSENTIALS REPORT |
Washington, D.C. - Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, our reliance on broadband or greater internet access and connectivity was more of a casual or leisure want outside of teleworking and checking your bank account to see how you can ball out on a budget! The want was based on sharing photos with friends and family, networking, and even forming social media groups with meet ups in person. However, it wasn't until the Coronavirus attacked from all angles, swiftly changing our wants to a critically drastic dire need with reliance and dependability function from all market sectors to start considering tools that will seamlessly connect broadband access, network capability and connectivity. Securing our broadband infrastructure is the foundation for this everlasting transformation which must include everyone in America. And today, Moving Underserved Communities Forward hosted by ALLvanza, MMTC, and OCA held a virtual dialogue "Now what? Charting the Next Phase in Closing the Digital Divide" bringing together diverse leaders to discuss technology and telecommunication policy issues facing underserved communities with a goal to create a venue where new ideas can blossom into programs partnerships or policy strategies capable of providing meaningful solutions to urgent challenges. The Coronavirus pandemic did expose Congress's latency in efforts to ensuring everyone has access to broadband with functioning network connectivity and not solely rely on the private sector to offer a bundle deal that not everyone can afford. Although many people have a computer that doesn't automatically translate as they have broadband access to navigate the web or connect the network not to mention providing any login information for a website portal. Opening the dialogue FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks stated "we need permanent solutions," and adopting a robust broadband approach not just for now but a reverberating for generations to come. Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee, PhD., Brookings Institute moderated the event series. Dr. Turner-Lee expressed that people need a pathway to social and economic opportunity and access to broadband can help jumpstart many for the tech road. She considered affordability as a main barrier of the broadband spectrum. "No child left off line," Dr. Lee stated during the dialogue as a management function for tackling this critical issue. During the pandemic it was more prevalent that not all students were able to access online learning. Or didn't have the drive and motivation for eight hours of online learning. Many parents had to adjust the home for a classroom setting outside of homework time while they too work remotely, so it was a tremendous balancing act while maintaining work-life balance in the home. Furthermore, the pandemic did present an opportunity for building broadband much better with accessibility at the forefront for seamless connectivity and the FCC just announced the Regional Emergency Broadband Benefit enrollment program to empower its outreach partners and targeted outreach campaigns. "From the beginning, we knew that spreading the word about the Emergency Broadband Benefit would require creative thinking and trusted community partners. It's why I'm proud that we continue to work with thousands of local officials and outreach partners to spread the word about this critical program," said Rosenworcel. The FCC has hosted hundreds of events, but we still have more work to do he expressed. The FCC staff conducted 200 virtual public presentations on the program since April, and the agency partnered across government too working with the Department of Labor who, in turn passed information on to state unemployment offices and workforce associations. The agency cohosted webinars with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Over 1,100 broadband providers have agreed to take part in the program, and you can enroll online here.
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The American Education system caught in a Critical Race Theory with no finish line for a winner6/27/2021 Is this where our society is going from the recent passage of #Juneteenth as a federal holiday? Where does this leave the starters in the race? Perhaps at the starting line racing for a seat in the classroom. Considering life is formed in the womb; that's actually where the nurturing and learning experience begins. The mother is learning how to proper care for her baby as it grows and once birthed those experiences continue to grow. Eventually the child's guardian will seek out some form of developmental skills for their child offered by a daycare. That development continues to advance then the child goes to Montessori and then it's time for the parents to cry for their child's first preschool experience. Now this isn't exactly how the education system has been set up, but it certainty has matured through many years of development itself. The classroom as we know today, was often times the church for the then Negro in America beyond Sunday school. Many lessons were taught at the church, and the African American Schoolhouse taught a few to students attending where there was room. Located on St. James Newton Road in Kent County, Maryland where the speed limit is now 25 miles an hour. Originally built as a church in 1890, it served as a one room schoolhouse. Where was room for Critical Race Theory at that time? It was very limited considering the challenge of obtaining an education only for one race that has yet to get started in the economic vitality race. However they show vital signs of leading the lagging education race. What is an education? Merriam-Webster defines it as the knowledge and development resulting from the process of being educated. Or the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools. To educate is bring up, bring up children, to train, to lead meaning to provide schooling from 1580's, and education is the training of animals, a rearing, a training for work is from 1610's. Now where did this education concept derive from to expound upon and evolve into the basic fundamental building blocks for an education in America? The General Education Board, founded by John D. Rockefeller based in agriculture way of life considering the time period with a philanthropic non-governmental organization, which was used primarily to support higher education in medical schools in the United States and to help rural white and black schools in the South as well as modernize farming practices in the South. This Board helped link research as state agricultural experience station with actual practice in the field and created in 1902 with a $1 million dollar donation to its cause. Moreover, it was the advisor to Rockefeller, Frederick Taylor Gates that envisioned "the country school of To-Morrow." Congress considered this concept to be the creation for the education system and the General Education Board was incorporated by an Act of Congress on January 12, 1903. The objective being the promotion of education within the United States of America without distinction of race, sex, or creed. It didn't take long for that promotion to begin corroding at its core with segregation in education then intersectionality of integrating; only to arrive at Critical Race Theory. But who is winning that lesson? It depends on who's teaching, is a factor to take into consideration. As if standardize testing isn't enough for the education race. Then there's coarse curriculum testing, and if the student wants to attend college there is a test for that also. So the student spends so many years testing only to learn Critical Race Theory? That has deprived them of a well rounded American education already. Let's examine what is race? It has two forms of speech a noun or a verb. In the form of a noun race is a narrative, an account, an act of swift running. A course of life or conduct, a rush, a leap, a jump. Race is also a people of common descent people descended from a common ancestor, class of persons allied by common ancestry. In the form of a verb, race is to rush head long, run against in competition of speed. Staying along this coarse only one race has been domesticated for this rearing and it started with classifying the slave, then they advanced in the society to negro then colored. Thanks to Jesse Jackson African American was later coined, and now it's just Black, but it's #youaintblack if you didn't voted for Joe Biden during the 2020 Presidential election. All of those labels to fit in the Critical Race Theory compartmentalization structure. Critical Race Theory originated in the mid 1970's in writing of several American Legal Scholars such as Derrick Bell first tenured African American professor of law at Harvard Law, Patricia J. Williams, an American legal scholar and a proponent of CRT, and Mari J. Matsuda, an American lawyer first tenured Asian American law professor in the US at UCLA, just to name a few. This concept emerged as a movement by 1980 reworking theories of critical legal studies with more focus on race. Critical Theory is an approach to social philosophy that focuses on reflective assessment and critique of society and culture in order to reveal and challenge power structures. All this sounds great but it already places a conflict of interest on the promotion of the General Board of Education. Race is a social construct so therefore building upon this for Critical Race Theory (CRT) doesn't really give the pupil a well rounded education although the human race is about the most advanced in modern day time. CRT emphasizes how racism and disparate racial outcomes can be the result of complex changing and often subtle social and institutional dynamics than expected and intentional prejudices on the part of individuals. If we recall how the system first was conceptualized, this theory would never offer a sufficient well-rounded education because the premise for the theory doesn't advance with the society. It stays stuck, and this wouldn't secure a reasonable future for any student with such sudden swift change in their curriculum which is online now. Access to education has a different obstacle coarse now because not all students have a computer to connect to learning in the classroom and some teachers are not as proficient with engagement on that level, as typing a word document. All of these dynamic aspects of the education system leave room for many variations of interpretation but what does the scholar suggest? It will show up in the report card or varying testing modules. However, parents have a preference to select from for the choice of education their child obtains, it can be public, charter, or private, and homeschool is an alternative to those options. This same pattern continues with higher learning you can select online, public, or private college or university to attend, but then more fees are assessed for that form of education. If everyone is so focused on race when will they have time to learn a lesson? One would just be learning how to color in the lines of the Coloring Book but that's about as much rational you could extract from Critical Race Theory, constantly coloring in a Crayon Book but no one is getting beyond the first page. The Coronavirus has caused the American education system to dissolve beyond any decision makers comprehension, and to add CRT to this virus is quite a variant to deal with. We are aware that health and wellness have been limited to online learning but that shouldn't give reason to further limit access to resources. CRT is detrimental to the advancement of society especially if there are no winners only scholars suggesting their theories to practice. That has a price but not everyone is willing to participate. Education has taken the backseat in America while Voting Rights has been the focus but if the society is uneducated then where does that leave the population, stuck at the starting line of CRT. Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis held a hybrid hearing to examine the Feds response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. Chairman Clyburn convened the hearing and was pleased to welcome Chair, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell. Chairman Clyburn expressed that over 22 million jobs have been lost as a result of the pandemic, and although the CARES Act emergency lending opened up established by the Feds, had limited measures in its effectiveness. On a state and local government levels the agency programs limited impact where states where in dire need. The Feds imposed loans unattractive to struggling businesses.
It's been evident for over a year that this virus has affected the entire world in ways not many were prepared for including the United States. Being effective, efficient, and wanting equitable results without an empowering mechanism that could embolden the community is another crisis within the pandemic. Did the #StayHome and #StaySafe recommendations really work? Or did they encourage many to find an effective and efficient way to close their small business or having to lean on an equitable loan from a hopeful list of lender's? According to Chairman Clyburn, Black and Brown communities suffered disproportionately economic pain in 2020 although the Biden Harris Administration accelerated the recovery efforts with setting a goal to get 100 million vaccinated. Coming down the pipeline is an American Rescue Plan that serves as a lifeline for American families. Let's see how fast they can expeditated that effort to align with the effective, efficient, and equitable economic future. Chairman Powell did recommend that raising American standard of living over the long-term will require Congress to make investments to sustain that recovery. Congress's enthusiasm and efficacy hasn't been as encouraging in some constituent services areas as others starting at the #600Stimmy. Maybe if those efforts were more encouraging then perhaps more American's would be eager to get back to work. Chairman Clyburn didn't agree that minimum wage has increased across America and could use some adjustments. What could use some advance action is where the Coronavirus came from, and Mr. Scalise (R- ) suggest the House Democrats refuse to hold a earing on the origins of COVID19. "The American people deserves to know what happened and how it happened," time to shine the light of transparency of the origins of this virus Mr. Scalise said during the hearing. On Capitol Hill inflation is defined as too much money chasing too few goods, and Ranking Member Scalise suggest this sounds like a Biden plan with revenue shortfalls and dramatically inaccurate reporting. Closing of schools causing long-term damage, along with cancelling the Keystone Pipeline project. He also emphasized that this is borrowed money and keep that in mind, and this had caused major harm to hard working families. The price of food has increased, gas has increased, and home ownership has been sweeping away by Black rock. Ultimately, Joe Biden wants to give away our intellectual property for COVID to China was a concern of Ranking Member Scalise. Concerns of inflation have reached the local Ward 7 community in Washington DC with even the Dollar General store closing next month, one man suggesting to get there before it does. These are some of the long-term affects of closing the cities across the country down during the pandemic. There were fewer than 500K jobs created during the first 5 months of Biden Administration. Chairman Powell shared that Main Street lending was affective with a couple thousand loans offered. He expressed it was difficult to reach small business and they were to look at the PPE loans despite the statutory limitations were unforgivable. Liquidity in the market did a stress test and results should resounding but resilience is rather shaky, and with municipal markets collapsing states had to access to market with a back stop better than direct loan. With regards to jobs, Chairman Powell impressed upon finding employment with be on a matching function as oppose to people going back to their old employer. Adopting the vaccine guidelines has some volume to the markets behavior. "When will bottlenecks disappear," said Chairman Powell during the hearing, and the Feds evaluate from a Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) versus Consumer Price Index (CPI). |
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